The word Shubh Labh consist of two words, first is Shubh which means auspicious, second word is Labh which means gains. Thus if we join these two words we get 'Auspicious Gains" . Everybody is after gains! But when we say Subh Labh, we are talking about those gains which have been earned through righteous means.
The concept of Subh Labh is enshrined in Hindu Religion. Hindu religion is the oldest religion of the world. So what does Hinduism gain by being the oldest. With age comes experience, so is true with Hindu religion and its people. Religion has philosophies about what is right and what is wrong. Generally, these philosophies are truly understood only by a few learned people. So how would these few implement those philosophies among the masses, simple they made rules for the masses which they must follow, so that any person with reasonable understanding can uncover the meaning of these rules. Over a period of time these rules become traditions.
One such tradition is writing Shubh Labh at the entrance of the Home and Shops. But we hardly give it a thought that why are we doing so. Convenient answer is "it is our tradition", but is that justification enough?
The writing of Subh Labh has a lot of importance attached to it. It stresses the importance of good intention. We give little importance to how we receive a particular thing from a person, what is his intention. Even if we buy a thing from a shopkeeper who gives it happily verses a shopkeeper who gives it cunningly, there arises a difference in happiness we derive by using that product.
Let me share a story. There was a small village of five families with equal land. All five families used to work hard and cultivated their land and grew equal amount of grains. Everything was good and they lived happily, until one day kaliyuga entered the brains of these families. They thought, let me steal some grains from my neighbor so that my grains would become more. Similarly, all five thought the same. The result was all of the five families were left with almost equal amount of grains. So what's the difference! There was a huge difference now, these grains would not make them happy as they used to be before. Before the grains were procured by righteous means, while now they are gained by deceit. This is the real concept of Shubh Labh.
Shubh means auspicious and Labh means Gains. So it means Aupicious Gains.
Hindu religion preaches that the gains must be auspicious in order for it to bestow happiness to a person.
When we write Shubh Labh at the entrance, then we are repeatedly reminded about those two words, which in turn motivate a person to follow the righteous path while doing his work. If we take the above story to a broader level, then we see that modern society is working in collaboration with each other, someone is buying goods from someone, while someone is buying services from someone. Society as a whole produces some gains, which are distributed among its members according to the labor they put for achieving those gains. If all members of the society work in a righteous manner than the gains they receive would be Shubh Labh. But if members of the society choose the path of deceit, then also the gain would be distributed among society only, but then it would not be Shubh Labh. Choosing the path of deceit does not increase the total gains of the society, it only results in disharmony and unhappiness. Thus the concept of Shubh Labh is very important.
